Surely it’s occurred to anyone who has spent time thinking about this that the real issue is that we are individuals. In each of these larger groups (Conservative, Moderate, and Liberal) there are people with shared traits and ideas, but while we overlap, we also have our uniqueness.

I may agree with one individual on the privatization of prisons (bad idea), but disagree with them on gay marriage (let people marry their loved ones already). I may agree with one person on abortion issues (abortion needs to be legal so it can be done safely and it’s a personal decision so none of my beeswax what you decide), but disagree with them on who should pay for college education (costs need to come down, but no I don’t think free college is realistic). I may agree that I did not like how that person voted on that environmental issue (stop with pipelines already!), but disagree on what the consequence should be (they’ve done more harm than good and I’m not throwing the baby out with the bathwater).

Lately I’ve spent time thinking about the “progressive” section of the Democrat party (I’m a Democrat). In the end I think there are more similarities between the moderates in the party and the more progressive individuals. The question is how do we come together?

There are limited funds for campaigning and it takes a LOT of funds. This is even tougher on the state level, and losing money to run against other Dems in the primary is a poor use of these precious funds.

But what’s the answer? I don’t think we can’t just say don’t run against each other and go along blindly as the establishment. I do think, especially at the state level, we need to avoid primaries, but when there are multiple candidates in a district we need to really evaluate as a group who the best candidate is for the majority. Ultimately this will be the person who has the best chance of winning in the general election, which is a shared goal among the party.

We need to start a CONVERSATION, and we need to start the conversation now. Not a debate, but an actual conversation where we sit down over drinks (coffee, tea, beer, wine) and LISTEN to each other.

2018 will be here before we know it.

Of course, we also have districts that don’t even have Democrats running in them, but that’s a whole other issue!